This book compares New Testament and Rabbinical texts in order to recover the oral tradition accompanying the written Biblical text. Although New Testament Greek is a hellenistic idiom, it reflects a Semitic rather than a hellenistic culture. Therefore, Culbertson looks to Jewish sources in order to understand the Greek text, rather than to the philosophical, methodological, and literary sources of hellenistic culture.

The author uses specific examples to illustrate various literary theories and to prove the value of a Listener Response Analysis of Gospel texts. A dozen parables are discussed in detail.